Tales from Tennessee

October 28th, 2009
Tennessee barrel house

The Democracy team experienced Lynchburg, Tennessee for the first time this weekend at the Jack Daniel’s 21st Annual Invitational BBQ championship, staged in the grounds of the legendary Tennessee whiskey distillery.

16 competition winners from the UK, plus one journalist from The Grocer joined us for the experience. The event (and our client the Jack Daniel’s BBQ Sauces brand) had been promoted across the national press including the Telegraph, Men’s Fitness and the Express, along with supermarket media Asda, Sainsbury’s and Delicious magazine.

The winners (and The Grocer) boarded the plane at Heathrow on Thursday and headed off for a five day whirlwind trip to the USA.

First stop, the Hilton in Nashville and a night of country and western in the many music bars in the city. After crashing out fairly early on (jet lag!) we awoke refreshed for what promised to be a day of exceptional eating . . . .a hearty breakfast, followed by a traditional deep south lunch at Miss Mary Bobo’s boarding house, a tour of the distillery, tasting session and dinner on BBQ Hill.

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Democracy PR goes ga-ga for BabyDeli

June 1st, 2009

Guess what?! Democracy PR has just picked up some new business from a handmade frozen organic baby food producer called BabyDeli to support their national roll out in Waitrose.

This is the first time that BabyDeli has retained the services of a PR agency – so we’re very pleased to have picked up the win following a competitive pitch.

We’ve already managed to get the brand in The Grocer in a few weeks, a slot on BBC Radio Manchester and a visit from a Grocer journalist who is coming up to have a look around their production facilities and to meet the MD later this month (it’s been a busy morning).

The new listing at Waitrose is the latest win for the range which is currently stocked by premium online retailer Ocado, John Lewis Cafes and a selection of healthfood stores nationwide.

As well as lots of trade activity, we’re putting into place an online web strategy to engage the massive mum community and have targeted many mummy twitter users to get their little ones to try the product for themselves.

With all these cute baby images about and fantastic products to taste – I just have to make sure the Democracy team don’t get too broody!

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The human touch

April 27th, 2009

This week the Grocer tells me that “successful retailers need the human touch in tough times”. The thrust of the article is that Sainsbury’s and Morrisons have achieved a personal touch in their adverts and this has stood them in good stead.

Between Jamie Oliver and Feed the Family for a Fiver, Sainsburys has positioned itself as not just a good value retailer but one with a heart. Whereas, the report, carried out by Cognosis, warns that Tesco is sliding towards being cold/aloof.

Yesterday, I noticed an advert for activia which told the viewer nothing about the product, its health benefits or even how happy and attractive I’d be if I drank it – simply that it’s cheaper than you’d think at 25p a bottle.

The human touch means more than understanding the ‘credit crunch’ effect on customers wallets. As always, brands need to capture the hearts and minds of the public.

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